The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau will hold a public hearing on Friday to solicit public input on high-voltage wires built near the Summer Palace and claimed to cause environment damages.

Sources with the bureau said local residents, construction teams and experts will attend the hearing.

After soliciting opinions from people representing all walks of life, the bureau will work out a solution on the issue.

According to the Beijing-based China Times, dozens of pylons transporting high-voltage electricity have surrounded the northern and northwestern parts of the Summer Palace, which is a well known tourist attraction in Beijing.

"I have been living here for nearly 20 years. Since the pylons were built, the beauty of the Summer Palace has diminished," a nearby resident told China Times.

The construction project, starting in February, turned out to be an illegal one that had not been approved by environmental authorities, said the China Times report.

Several of the towers are in or nearby the the Baiwangjiayuan community and high-voltage wires are strung above residential buildings.

A piece of land to the west of the community was set aside as a grassland, but now two iron towers are preventing people from going there, Chen Haipeng, a resident in the community, told China Times.

Many local residents have expressed concern about the health of their children, as a kindergarten is being built close to the pylons.

Experts say children that live within 200 meters of high-voltage wires are 30 per cent more likely to develop leukaemia than those who are not regularly exposed to electromagnetism.

To build high-voltage wires carrying 220,000 volts that are so close to residential areas and major scenery spots is obviously not proper and violates relevant laws and regulations, Zhao Yufeng, an environmental protection expert, told China Times.

(China Daily August 11, 2004)